The difference is that while Sutter, who lifted the Stanley Cup a year ago, has the Kings back in the Western Conference finals, Tortorella's Rangers bowed out in five games to the Boston Bruins a year after losing in the East finals, and scored only 26 goals in 12 games in the 2013 playoffs.

The Rangers began this season with expectations of being a high-flying offensive team in front of the world-class goaltender Henrik Lundqvist. With a projected top line of Rick Nash, Brad Richards, and Marian Gaborik, New York was listed among the top contenders for the Cup as the season began.

Tortorella's failure to connect with Gaborik loomed large, but so did general manager Glen Sather's failure to replace the players the Rangers lost last summer with acceptable depth pieces. Artem Anisimov and Brandon Dubinsky were jettisoned to acquire Nash, and Brandon Prust went to Montreal as a free agent. It was telling that while Bruins coach Claude Julien was rolling four lines in the playoffs, Tortorella had only eight or nine forwards he felt he could trust.

A lack of depth on defense also meant that once Marc Staal and Anton Stralman got hurt, 39-year-old waiver claim Roman Hamrlik went into the lineup, and it was Hamrlik's turnover, with Steve Eminger, Micheal Haley, Kris Newbury, and Derek Dorsett on the ice, that resulted in a series-clinching goal by Boston's much more reliable fourth line.

Ultimately, though, the onus fell on Tortorella to get more out of his team, and a power play that went 4-for-44 in the playoffs, with top talent on the ice, could not be overlooked.

There also is the matter of Lundqvist offering less-than-encouraging comments about his future in New York when asked about the possibility of signing a contract extension before he becomes a free agent next year. Lundqvist is the Rangers' most important player, the winner of the Vezina Trophy last season and a finalist this year, and if he was upset about the direction of a team that relied heavily on shot-blocking and a defense-first approach even for skilled forwards, that represented a problem.